Being on the move is always good for seeing and recording new things and places and always sparks my desire to shoot stuff. Three more here from the return from the big easy. e and I had visited and were charmed by the story and the resilience of the inhabitants during a visit shortly after "the storm". Today things are still not fixed, but it is clearly getting to be a scar created further in their collective pasts. It is no longer the open wound it was.

When I am out shooting, it takes me a little while to get into a groove. I will fire off shots knowing that no one will ever see them. I start composing and shoot until eventually it happens, I get something I like and I start into a groove. The top shot was the shot on Monday that signified the transition to being in a zone and I saw and composed with ease while in the big easy.....then took the bottom shot and quickly saw the next shot when the battery went dead. The back ups were back at the hotel an hour away.....damn!

I am old enough to remember when people would applaud when the airplane touched ground. Seemingly, it was the same people who also clapped for a movie on it's completion. In both scenarios, I am glad that these clappers have stopped. In the airplane, it was a little disconcerting- as if they didn't expect to survive the flight. And of course, James Earl Jones cannot hear you clapping.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The shooting all these pictures has become all but natural. Originally I liked to upload during the week and keep stuff up to date a couple times a week. But more recently it has become more of a weekend job of uploading and then choosing and mini-blogging an image from each day of the previous week- a little week that was in my little existence.

The captain is announcing the weather in lovely Newark and soon we will be on the ground and I will be updating my Facebook status, perhaps I will enjoy a beer as I wile away the layover and the tiny hands manipulating the truck on Easter day will be long forgotten until you arrive.

I know, I know more of the dog…. Next week there will be shots from Bourbon St (hopefully)…. Or see how I take pics of the dog when we are separated by 1500 miles! Besides if you go back to the beginning of the year.. I told you I was going to shoot her daily, I have been looking forward to this challenge for some time…

phoenix has been running free on the backside of the second bogs. We did not let her do this for the first 2 years we had her. She has gained our trust more and more as she matures and she certainly loves to run!

A test shot for some ideas that have inspired by someone else’s inspiration. I needed to get out earlier as I wanted the deep blue purple of late dusk. I do kind of like the transparent pint and seashells….next I need to get the intended figures perhaps a different location.

More phoenix 365 material. This dog more than any other previous dog, I am so proud to watch bask in the glory of the dog life. She has been so perfect, I do not, as I have occasionally with previous dogs, besmirched her inability to get a job, or do something productive around the house. She earns her lazy Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, holidays by being such a pure gem, a true puppy ambassador as we call her. Before leaving on the previous posts mentioned trip, she snuggled in a little ball on my left hip and rested her chin on my lap, seemingly there is a mutual admiration!

The little ones around us are growing, it seems like every Easter there is a new hunter. Last years hunters are taller or more precise in their ability to stalk their egg laden prey, or both. But I guess that happens.

This and the surrounding entries are being done on April 19, 2009 from a continental airlines flight. I am on board a Q-400 turbo prop plane enroute to New Orleans via Newark. This will be a quick 2 day work trip and I believe this is the first time I have ever flown solo for real…..

Easter is all ready a week past. The last several years we have been hosting an egg hunt. This year we were smart enough to get some of the multi-pastel eggs back…so next year we do not need to buy them all over again.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

e and I took the first t-shirt only walk of the spring on this day. This day also marks the 100th post and shot in this 365 day project. So far I am not finding it very difficult and I am not getting tired- so I guess that is a good sign. That said if you (yes you!) have a suggestion of something you would like shot let me know! The more suggestions I get the less you have to see of the dog.

The night before the shot on the right was taken, I was sitting nervously at the judging of the Upper Cape Cod Camera club April competition. I have recently joined the club and this was the first time I have entered a piece in competition there or anywhere in sometime. I choose a ballerina shot from the Nutcracker performance from December. I entered it in the open category. I love this shot and so did the club! Very pleasing. I have been getting a good amount of very nice feedback lately and I no longer suspect it is people just trying to be nice.

What an amazing time we live in. This week I have instant messaged with a colleague in the southern coast of Australia, left a phone message in Spain (or at least I think I did, I do not speak Spanish), and I have emailed France, Florida, and frequently. I have watched the progress or assisted with the operation of underwater robots in all the worlds oceans.

Have I said this before.....It's not likely that anyone will ever write a biography about me, hell its not likely that I will write an autobiography, so why the hell would anyone else? So this space will have to do. After such a high of productivity over a couple days is it normal to be less inspired... Monday brought me back to the phoenix 365 project and average to below average results.....

Photographing Marley and her folks was such a great time and part of a very satisfying weekend. Sometimes time flies by and you and have great difficulty figuring out where it went. Other times each moment is perfectly filled and framed exactly as it is supposed to be.

Lisa Garner passed away a year ago April. She was certainly many things, including but not limited to, a mother, wife, friend and to me a photographer. Her charming work, a reflection of her personality, went on display at the New England School of Photography at the gallery named in her honor, The Garner Center, on April 2nd. Personally I have come to tears many times in remembering her over the last week. I just keep thinking this is just something that can not be understood.

It's funny getting in touch with other species. Especially the dog. e and I are constantly creating their inner dialogs as often they seem to be easily expressed on their faces and in their body language. In this particular case you can see Mac the larger dog telling the pip squeak...

We spent this day celebrating some birthdays, a 2 and a 29. The whole family even got outside for a couple rocket launches in the front yard over at the allder compound, despite winter not wanting to give way to spring.